Jered Weaver put the finishing touches on his brilliant first half with eight shutout innings against the Orioles yesterday, improving to 10-1 with an MLB-leading 1.96 ERA in 15 starts.

Last year Weaver entered the All-Star break with an 11-4 record and 1.86 ERA, which puts him in some exclusive company for first-half dominance.

Dating back to 1950 the only pitchers with 10 or more wins and a sub-2.00 ERA at the All-Star break in back-to-back seasons are Weaver in 2011-2012 and Sandy Koufax in 1963-1964.

And as Baxter Holmes of the Los Angeles Timesnotes, if AL manager Ron Washington chooses Weaver to start the All-Star game he’ll be the first pitcher to do so in back-to-back seasons since Randy Johnson in 2000-2001.

Not bad for a guy who missed nearly a month with back problems earlier this season.

No kidding. In the ’60’s I remember that the Colt 45’s/Astros would have trouble drawing crowds. Then Koufax would come in and they would sell out. Everyone knew they were seeing a Hall of Famer. From 1962-1966 I think he was as good as anyone has ever been.

Being compared to Sandy Koufax is a joke. A prime example of why statistics cannot show the whole picture. While the stats are comparable, they do not factor in the quality of the opposing teams. I saw baseball in 1963-1964. Walked to Connie Mack in Philly and sat in the Bleachers for fifty cents! When the Giants came to town, I saw Mays, McCovey, Cepeda, Alou brothers, Marichal, Gaylord Perry, Jack Sanford. The Cards had Brock, Bill White, Gibson, McCarver, Key Boyer. We had Jim Bunning, Richie Allen, Johnny Callison. The Reds had Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson, Pete Rose, Perez, Jim Maloney. The Braves had Joe Torre, Eddie Mathews, Aaron, Felipe Alou, Rico Carty, Warren Spahn. The Cubs had Banks, Santo, Billy Williams, Lew Burdette, Bobby Shantz. The Pirates had Clemente, Stargell, Mazeroski, Bob Veale, Wilbur Wood. The Houston .45s, clearly a bad team by any standards, had Jimmy Wynn, Rusty Staub, Nellie Fox. Ok, I wont talk about the Mets, lol!

My point is that Koufax faced good teams that were stocked with stars. Teams that could beat him on any night. And he faced them on a pre-division schedule. He did not feast on weak teams in division play.

Read those names AGAIN. Now look at who Weaver faced. Draw your own conclusions!

OK, I’ll make an attempt to be fair. The 1963-64 Dodgers were no slouches. Koufax had a pretty good team behind him. Maury Wills, Tommy Davis, Willie Davis, Frank Howard, Johnny Roseboro, Ron Perranoski and Don Drysdale. And the benefit of the best ‘pitchers park’ in MLB.

I still dont think that Weaver could have done what Koufax did. Drysdale didnt, and he, IMHO, was a better pitcher than Weaver.

I really dont think the article implies that Weaver and Koufax deserve the same amount of honor or recognition. The article simply points out that Weaver had a great first half back to back seasons, with double digit wins and sub 2.00era. To me, that sounds like a pretty good first half and it is a feat achieved infrequently. The article brings up Koufax because he was the only other one who did the same in the last half century, not because in any way Weaver and Koufax are the pitcher of the same caliber.

Though direct comparison is futile, considering the difference of circumstances the two pitchers played, but i have to concede that going 10-1 with 1.97 while having missed a month is quite a feat. Good job Jered.